The present invention relates to an arrangement for recognizing, via brake light means provided on a vehicle, especially a motor vehicle, whether or not the vehicle is slowing down, whereby the brake light means can be turned on upon activation of a vehicle brake via a switch that is connected therewith.
As every motor vehicle driver knows, and as is encountered almost daily when driving in traffic, the brake lights of a motor vehicle that is in front of the driver already begin to light up as soon as the brake is actuated or contacted slightly by the driver, even though in actuality no braking effect has occurred yet. The reason for this is that the contact point of the brake light switch that is generally coupled at a suitable location with the foot brake of the motor vehicle is set in such a way that the brake light means, which are mounted so as to be visible from the outside of the vehicle, light up already upon the lightest contact on the brake pedal, i.e. upon actuation of the brake.
The result of this is that often motorists driving behind such a vehicle become alarmed because based on the overall traffic situation there appears to be absolutely no reason for braking. As a result of this alarm, a driver who has noticed the brake lights of the vehicle in front of him lighting up often himself abruptly brakes his vehicle, and sometimes even more severely, so that out of a completely noncritical driving situation in flowing traffic, a chain reaction, and hence serious accidents, can occur that can involve a number of vehicles that are driving behind one another in the manner of a column, since the chain reaction could continue to the last member of the column.
A further great source of danger that is often observed in traffic is that vehicles, generally trucks and busses, have at their disposal a so-called motor brake that is capable of exerting considerable negative accelerations, i.e. decelerations upon the vehicle. If such a vehicle is appropriately braked via the motor brake, no brake light means light up at all during such actuation of the known vehicle brakes, which often results in a vehicle driving behind the braking vehicle running into the latter, which could have been avoided had the driver in back been aware of the process by seeing a brake light means light up.
Both the first problem and the second problem mentioned above, which concern the general safety of motor vehicles in traffic, have very detrimental results since a considerable proportion of accidents that occur in traffic can be attributed to these problems.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement for recognizing whether or not a vehicle is slowing down whereby others that are also driving in traffic can easily recognize the degree of braking intensity of a vehicle, and taking into consideration this information can rapidly and reliably undertake their own actions with regard to the vehicular traffic, whereby the arrangement should be suitable for installation in every vehicle, and furthermore should be economical and should also be capable of being subsequently installed or retrofitted in existing brake light means of vehicles.